400 



U00T8. 



nnd other authorities, except when they are actually frozen. At all other times 

 during the winter, they are ])cri)etually attracting food from the earth, and con- 

 veying it into the interior of the plant, where, at that season, it is stored up till 

 it is required by the young shoots of the succeeding year. The whole tissue of a 

 jdant will therefore become distended with fluid by the return of spring, and tlie 

 degree of distension will be in i)roi)ortion to the mildness and length of the pre- 

 ceding winter. As the new shoots of spring arc vigorous or feeble in ])roportion 

 to the quantity of food that may be prepared for them, it follows that the longer 

 the period of rest from growth, the more vigorous the vegetation of a i)hint will 

 become when once reuewcd, if that period is not excessively i)rotractcd. 



No plants which are expected to attain a large size should ever be grown in 

 pots, but should be treated on the same principle as our common forest-trees, with 

 this difference, that they never should be allowed to remain more than two years, 

 and, in some cases, not so much, without being transplanted, by which means the 

 main roots would radiate naturally from the common centre, as in Fig. 2, and 

 become sutTiciently numerous to insure a ball of earth to adhere to them. Plants 

 would thus be furnished of a very superior quality, and at a much cheaper rate 

 than those mutilated and expensive deformities nurtured in pots. 



In our next figure (Fig. 3) is represented a tree circumscribed by the limits of 

 pot culture. In the former, the roots arc extending in all directions near the 

 surface in search of food ; in the latter, they have a direct tendency downwards, 

 where they neither can derive food, nor, from their position, have the same effect 

 as the former in maintaining the perpendicular position of the tree. Camellias 

 will be found in such and worse conditions, where care has not been taken at 

 shifting to disentangle them, and afford them more space for their horizontal 

 extension. 



Our next figure (Fig. 4) shows the state of a fruit or forest-tree, subjected, in 

 early life, to pot culture ; where the roots have been most confined and contorted. 



Fiff. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



■ the supply of sap thrown into the side of the tree immediately above them has 

 been limited and irregular, as seen by the smaller and irregular portions of th 

 annular rings in the transverse section of the trunk; whereas, again, wher 



